


Snow Storms, and Other Natural Disasters

by clxude



Series: anima vinculum [3]
Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, M/M, Minor Injuries, Pro-Bending, Waterbending & Waterbenders, iwaizumi is a pro-bender, oikawa is a healer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-23 20:22:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6128966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clxude/pseuds/clxude
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Oikawa was a snow storm, violent and oh so beautiful, and Hajime was fighting to stay out of his wind for as long as he could.”</p><p>/Can be read alone/<br/>/No prior knowledge of avatar is required/</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snow Storms, and Other Natural Disasters

**Author's Note:**

> the third part is finally here.  
> I wrote this insanely fast but it was betaed by @kxrasuno at tumblr so there shouldn't be any grammar errors? idk they're great man

Iwaizumi Hajime made the seas churn when he bent. He made the pro-bending arena shake around him, sending coils of water at his enemy with fluid agility.

 

He was a freak of nature with a drop of water on his finger, forever ready to decimate someone in a fight.

 

But a war was one-part physical, four parts psychological. He could never play that field, not the way Oikawa could.

 

...

 

"Seijoh has been on fire all season. After the announcement of the engagement between its fire and earth benders last spring, they've steadily advanced from top eight to number two in the nation."

 

The announcer's voice echoed through the cavern as the teams walked onto the platform.

 

Hajime, captain and resident water bender, led the Seijoh team to their side of the court. Makki and Mattsun, fire and earth benders respectably, followed behind.

 

It was the season finals, against the Shiratorizawa pro-bending team. It was an even match up, with a fire bender as captain.

 

"What should we have for dinner, Issei? I was thinking the new ramen shop a block from our apartment." Makki asked as he secured his helmet strap.

 

"Oh, I was thinking the burger place at the train station, Takahiro."

 

"Maybe. Or- "

 

"As much as I love you guys, can you not plan your dinner during a game?"

 

The couple turned on Hajime at the same time, before both lifting their middle fingers.

 

"Really, Iwaizume-kun? Nutrition is very important." Mattsun smirked.

 

"Not that you would know, of course, considering you don't have a way to expend all that extra energy."

 

"Just don't lose the damn game."

 

...

 

They lost the first set, barely snatched up the second. By the time the third, and final, began, their arms were like lead.

 

But Shiratorizawa, there was a reason it was the top team. 

 

The captain of the other team hit Makki with everything he had until he couldn't keep up with the blows, sending him into the water below.

 

Mattsun screamed, swears flying from his mouth. In the split second he was distracted, both the water and fire benders struck.

 

Soon, Hajime was the only one left. He took a deep breath, loosening his control on the water below the platform. The moment the other water bender noticed the change, he called for an attack.

 

Shiratorizawa was a synchronized machine. They fought as one, shooting their elements at the lone water bender with deadly accuracy.

 

But water is alive. It remembers you on the rare occasion someone is strong enough to master it, strong enough to mimic every minute shift in nature. Huge waves, tsunamis and hurricanes, were easy. But waves small enough to seem real were near impossible.

 

...

 

A billionth of a second before Shiratorizawa struck home, Hajime leapt. A tidal wave came over him, decimating rock and fire and water. It did not stop, rolling straight off the edge, taking the number one team right with it.

 

When his feet touched the raised platform again, the arena erupted in cheers.

 

...

 

Mattsun and Makki took him out to a new ramen shop after the match. It was nice and small, old enough to not have all of the obligatory this-shop-is-new-we-have-to-go customers. Highlights were being played over the radio, but no one seemed to notice them, the oddball group of benders.

 

Once Mattsun and Makki finished eating, they set down their bowls. They smiled nervously. Their rings glinted in the light.

 

"We need to talk to you," Makki looked at Mattsun before continuing. "It's important."

 

"Is one of you pregnant? Because I've seen naked you since we were all thirteen, and I swear to the gods if someone got a member of my team pregnant, my shit will be lost."

 

Mattsun laughed, "No, it's not that. Makki and I decided to leave the team."

 

"It might just be next season, or for good. It's just, with all the training,"

 

"And we won finals,"

 

"And it's just nice to spend time with my fiancé without having to worry about being hit with a rock moving ninety kilometers an hour."

 

Iwaizumi nodded, smiling. It made sense, to leave when it was still good. Besides, they were young, barely scratching twenty. They deserved time after all the years of training.

 

"And, Iwaizumi-kun, you should go home. Oikawa- "

 

Hajime stood quickly, knocking his chair over. He grabbed his bag from under the table and righted his chair.

 

"I can't talk to him. We're not friends."

 

"Iwaizumi-kun- "

 

"No. I'm sorry, I have too... " he rushed out of the shop. He was already a block down the road when the door shut.

 

...

 

The next morning, there was a one-way airship ticket to the north pole and a picture of the team slipped under the door.

 

...

 

When the airship touched down, the water bender regretted every decision he had made in the past twenty or so years. The snow and ice crunched under foot and landed on his seal parka. The air was brittle, far removed from the smog of the dense Earth Kingdom cities he had inhabited since he was a teenager.

 

It was good to be home, even if _he_ was here. But it's been three years since then, and Hajime would be damned if he let one boy scare him off an entire continent.

 

But it wasn't just a boy. He had never been just some boy.

 

...

 

Hajime's mother had been a healer. She was talented and kind, wise and fearless. Everyone has a downfall; some are just so dramatic they light up the cosmos. But some are quiet and brave, like saving an orphan in a blizzard of his own creation.

 

Oikawa was a snow storm, caught up in his own head until he couldn't see the end he had created for himself until a woman pulled him, seven years old and far too alone, into her arms.

 

Some people's downfalls are quiet, like Hajime's mother. But some are explosions that rocks the universe to its core, dragging on for years until nothing but destruction is left in their wake.

 

Oikawa was a snow storm, violent and oh so beautiful, and Hajime was fighting to stay out of his wind for as long as he could.

 

...

 

The boat ride to his village was fairly uneventful. It was small and remote, with few sources of news. No one knew he was a pro-bender, that his team was ranked number one. No one knew that he was coming home to a place that didn't quite feel his anymore.

 

The wind was icy, pelting his skin. The temperature made Hajime miss Makki more than he thought he would, with the protective heat he would cast over the team.

 

(They were right, anyway. He belonged here, with the snow and frozen sun and endless water. But, that didn't mean it wanted him anymore.)

 

...

 

He stopped before he reached his father's tent.

 

_"I'll be home in three years, Dad. I promise it's not forever."_

 

But it had been a life time, seven years without a word. He made a world for himself, a pocket universe to stay warm in. It was small, just Mattsun and Makki and him. The three of them against the world, against pro-bending and anything else Fate threw their way.

 

But Hajime and Seijoh weren't invincible.

 

Up north, there was a storm brewing, a storm made of dashing looks and flirtatious smiles.

 

It happened when he was seventeen, a year longer than he promised. Hajime didn't want to go home, were it was cold, where there wasn't his friends and pro-bending, an entire galaxy at his fingertips.  

 

But storms weren't fair. He shouldn't have expected him to play nice.

 

When he opened the door, he was seven all over again. He couldn't stop the collision.

 

"Hey, Iwa-chan. I missed you." Oikawa had been as charismatic as always, if not even more in the time they had been apart. Or, it could have been his feelings for his best friend he was fighting tooth and nail to suppress.

 

...

 

If there was anything Hajime regretted, there were exactly three things. They all had to do with Oikawa, and that night when he was seventeen.

 

He could blame the first on expecting takeout food, the second being horny, and the third on Oikawa's morning breath. Or, more preferably, Oikawa in general. 

 

But in the end, nothing changed. He kept pro-bending, staying away from the Northern Water Tribe until he was twenty. Oikawa went back home. It was the end of the story. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

But storms don't stop because you can see the sky. They're always somewhere out of the corner of your eye, lurking for the perfect moment to strike.

 

Hajime should have known they never really said goodbye.

 

...

 

"Dad,"

 

The small tent was warm, piled high with furs and pillows, completely situated around a small fire.

 

"Hello, Hajime. It's been a few years." His tone barely masked his anger.

 

"There was a lot going on in the Earth Kingdom, what with school and the team- "

 

He froze.

 

_The team._

 

"Oh, yes. How was that, Hajime? Oikawa is very into pro-bending. He mentioned something about your team winning?"

 

 _Of course he would know,_ Hajime thought bitterly. Drunk Hajime had never been good with secrets.

 

"So, is that the reason you left for seven years?"

 

"Yes," he stared into the fire, and his thoughts drifted to Makki and Mattsun. He wondered how they were faring.  

 

"Then why did you come back? I missed you so much, I didn't know what to do, or if it was my fault- "

 

"It wasn't."

 

"And Oikawa, he tried to move out. He stopped talking, stopped showing up to healer training. He just _stopped,_ Hajime. He blamed himself so much... I thought I was losing everyone."

 

 _But what about me?_ , he wanted to ask. He didn't leave his home for the hell of it, like everyone assumed. Everyone was hurt, everyone except for him. His feelings fucking mattered too.

 

"I'm just glad you were ready to come home, Hajime."

 

...

 

He pretended his wasn't freezing when he walked through the village. It was snowing again, but not enough to stick. With a _click_ of his fingers, a small shield appeared overhead, blocking anymore of the possible oncoming snow.

 

"Still as brooding as always, Iwa-chan?"

 

He knew this meeting would happen eventually, but he would be lying if he said he hadn't wanted it further in the future.

 

"Iwa-chan," his hands were cold, cold enough that Hajime could feel them through his parka. "Weren't you going to come visit your dear friend?"

 

Hajime leaned back into his touch, but still didn't say anything.

 

"Are you at least going to call me Trashykawa? It's rare for you to not insult me at all."

 

His cheeks were flushed, but whether it was from the cold or Oikawa's arms around his waist, tracing stars on his parka, he didn't know.

 

"I saw your last match this season. You were pretty good. Not as good as me, but no mere pro-bender could ever compete with me. You're close enough, I suppose."

 

 _There he is,_ Hajime thought bitterly. _And he was doing so well today._

 

"Don't you have better things to do? Go heal someone, Shittykawa."

 

"There he is," Oikawa laughed softly before stepping back. "See you later, Iwa-chan."

 

...

 

He went hunting the next morning, with a few benders from the village. It was a small party, made up mostly of people around Hajime's age. They walked across the ice fields, occasionally leaping between large gaps.

 

He stayed towards the back, trailing his spear on the ice that had formed overnight. He had never liked hunting, preferring the large market by the pro-bending arena. It was easier and there was a significantly lower chance of death.

 

"Come on, Iwaizumi-san!" He looked up to see the rest of the hunting party was at least one hundred meters ahead. Takeru waved at him.

 

He lifted his foot to take a step forward, but stopped. Something was in the water, far larger than an otter penguin. He shrugged his shoulders, scrambling across the ice when Takeru yelled again.

 

He formed an ice bridge when he reached a gap without a thought. It was easily able to support his weight. He had only taken a single step, however, when he felt something in the water again. He paused, trying to form a clear sense of what was circling below him.

 

"Iwaizumi-san, come- "

 

"Shut up!" He raised his hand. The top two inches of the sea froze. "There's something down there."

 

"It's probably just an otter penguin."

 

"It's not a fucking otter penguin, Takeru."

 

He looked down at the ice. Hairline fractures were splitting up the ice chunk. He tightened his grip on the element, but he was fighting against something much bigger and much stronger.

 

"Shit," he whispered before taking off across the water.

 

He could hear the ice cracking even louder than he could sense it. The creature's grasp was even tighter than his, melting his ice stepping stones as quickly as he could freeze them. The monster was gaining on him, sending out huge waves to capsize icebergs.

 

The party watched him apprehensively. When he was thirty meters away, they lifted their spears. Twenty meters, they began to raise a tidal wave. But they were too slow, and ten meters later, the sea swallowed Hajime.

 

...

 

Hajime had always loved the water. It remembered him, comforted him like his mother had before she died.

 

His grandfather, a week after she died, told him that she was one with the sea again. She would always watch after him, always protecting him when he strayed from the village. No matter where he went, were there was water, he was safe.

 

The memory had sunk to the bottom in the past thirteen years, only to suddenly appear in that moment. The sea welcomed him, caressing him in its watery embrace. He relaxed into it. His eyes drifted closed.

 

His mother's voice called to him, beckoning him into the deep. He followed, eyes still shut. He propelled himself downwards, so deep even he could feel the water pressure. Her voice grew louder and more lyrical, swooping like a lark.

 

 _"Hajime,"_ it was like a whisper, coaxing him further even as his lungs screamed for air. _"Come to me, Hajime."_

 

He followed, ever the obedient son for her. Something tugged at the back of his mind. There was a blurred memory, one of tales of monstrous girls in the deep. But this was his mother, _his mother,_ he couldn't lose her again.

 

His vision was going black from a combination of lack of oxygen and three hundred feet of ocean overhead. He kept diving, swimming deeper and deeper and _deeper_ , until his lungs were about to burst.

 

_Iwa-chan!_

 

He didn't expect Oikawa's voice to call out to him when tunnel vision began to cloud his mind.

 

_Iwa-chan, I missed you. Are you ever coming home?_

 

They were the same words he spoke when they were seventeen, outside of Hajime's apartment the year after he went pro. Oikawa's hands had been on Hajime's elbows, only a few inches between them.

 

Hajime wanted to kiss him. Oikawa kissed back.

 

 _"Hajime, don't leave me again."_ His mother's voice was fading, washed out by Oikawa's cries for Iwa-chan.

 

Hajime felt torn between them, the boy he loved and his dead mother.

 

The sea was cast in grays and deep blues. Somewhere below him, a faint golden light illuminated the sea bed. He was drawn to it, but Oikawa's voice kept screaming in his head like a warning.

 

The desire to swim up hit him like one of Shiratorizawa's fire balls. He kicked himself up, following the memory of Oikawa from when he was seventeen.

 

_Sirens._

 

Of course he followed a siren.

 

...

 

He dragged himself onto an ice chunk. His chest was heaving, his fingers covered in blood. His skin dried quickly, but retained a faint blue hue. He didn't know how long he laid on the ice, fighting to calm his breathing, when the hunting party found him.

 

Takeru glared at him, before shaking his head and stalking off.

 

"Told you... told you there was something," he quipped, before promptly passing out.

 

...

 

He woke up in a healer's tent, cocooned in blankets with approximately eighty-nine pillows under his head. Someone was fussing over a fire, but Hajime couldn't make out who it was through sleep-blurred eyes. His mouth was dry and tasted heavily of sea water.

 

He tried to sit up, but was too constricted. He fell back down with a whine.

 

"Iwa-chan? Are you awake yet?" 

 

_Of fucking course._

 

Oikawa settled down beside him. He was holding a bowl of soup.

 

"You've been out a few days. Takeru thought you were dead." He offered Hajime a spoonful, which he grudgingly accepted. Oikawa's cooking abilities hadn't improved since they were kids.

 

"So did I, Iwa-chan. You need to be more careful. I know you're strong and all..."

 

"Oikawa - " he stopped when the healer shoved the spoon into his mouth.

 

"Shh, Iwa-chan. You need to save your strength. Takeru said you were missing for nearly four hours. You're a fucking idiot, you know that?"

 

He lifted his hand to check Hajime's temperature. He clicked his tongue before standing.

 

"You'll be fine, Iwa-chan. All thanks to me, of course."

 

"Thank you, Shittykawa." He meant it.

 

...

 

Oikawa keeps Hajime in his tent a few days longer than necessary. He doesn't mind. He's more than happy to stay if it means he can avoid Takeru and the rest of the hunting party.

 

Oikawa is bad enough on his own, watching over him constantly like a mother hen. The healer wouldn't even let him sit up on his own.

 

By the time he leaves, he has nearly kissed Oikawa no less than eight times. Hajime could convince himself that it's just some stupid crush on a childhood friend, but deep down, he knows it's far more than that.

 

...

 

Makki and Mattsun send him a letter on the next airship to announce their wedding on Kyoshi Island. There's a picture attached, one of the three of them when they won their first match in high school.

 

Oikawa saw it the next time he burst into Hajime's tent uninvited. He paused to study it, whatever words he was about to speak dying on his lips.

 

"Are those your team mates? Didn't the announcer say they were engaged?" His finger briefly touched the edge of the photograph before he smiled at Hajime. "You looked happy in this."

 

"That was from after the first match we ever won." He paused, weighing the next words on his tongue. "They're getting married next month, and I was wondering if you wanted to go with me. As my plus one. Not like a date or anything - "

 

"I would love to go, Iwa-chan!"

 

"Hey, get off me, Shittykawa!"

 

...

 

They go to the abandoned Fire Nation warship the next day. It had been Oikawa's idea, a bit of fun, maybe a casual water bending match between the two of them.

 

But somehow, his hand ended up in Hajime's, only two layers of gloves separating them.

 

"Were you mad at me, Iwa-chan?" Oikawa asked. They're feet were dangling off the edge of the ship.

 

"Why would I have been mad at you?"

 

"Because you never came back. Everyone missed you, and I found you and you shut me out."

 

"I couldn't come home then. I couldn't leave the team, not when we had just gone pro - "

 

"Three fucking years, Iwa-chan. That's what you promised. Three years, you would come home, and I would have you back. But then you don't, and four years go by when I'm finally ready to find you, and you _kissed_ me, and I thought you finally returned my feelings."

 

"Oikawa - "

 

"Shut the fuck up, Iwa-chan. I thought you might finally come home, but then you kicked me out at three am into a city _I had never been to before_. And then three years later, you show up and almost die! Who does that? Who the fuck _does_ that?!"

 

Snow exploded around them when he yelled. The warship sunk a foot deeper into the ice.

 

"I missed you so much," he wiped at his eyes roughly with the sleeve of his parka, his voice now quiet and shaky. "I just wanted you to come home,"

 

Hajime found Oikawa's hand again and held it in his lap. He could hear Oikawa's breath hitch, but he didn't let go.

 

"I missed you, too. Makki and Mattsun left the team, so I won't be leaving any time soon."

 

He let he phrase dangle in the air, leaving it up for the other boy to interpret it however he wished. There was a moment of silence, full of baited breath and the whistling of wind until a single instant, a split second when Oikawa lunged to the side. His hands slipped under Hajime's hood, curling around his hair as his mouth met Hajime's. It was messy and fumbling, with knocked teeth and bit lips. Oikawa's lips were chapped from the cold. Hajime pushed him away after only a few seconds.

 

"What the fuck, Asskawa?! You just - "

 

"You led me on, Iwa-chan!"

 

"You fucking bit me!"

 

"Oh,"

 

It was quiet again, until their mouths found each other. It was better this time around, with less teeth and more sighs, but still with the occasional bumped nose. The next time they pulled away, Oikawa's cheeks were flushed, leaving Hajime to suspect his were as well.

 

"Tooru?"

 

"Hmm?"

 

"Nothing. I just wanted to try it out,"

 

"Okay, Hajime."

 

They stayed there the rest of the day, watching snow fall around them, leaving it suspended overhead. Hajime's right hand was going numb from the subzero weather, but he didn't particularly mind, not when Tooru's fingers were wrapped around it.


End file.
